Ian Allan answers your fantasy football questions. In this edition: Which running back should be targeted in Dallas? Is Kelvin Benjamin too fat to be an elite wide receiver? And will Jimmy Graham help or hurt Russell Wilson's production?

Question 1

One of the big questions this year is who will be the RB for Dallas? Is it time to start drafting Randle as the guy there? He seems to be the favorite now.

David Kennedy (Steamburg, NY)

I think he’s interesting. That’s the league’s best offensive line – by far – and Randle is a much better back now than when they selected him in the fifth round in 2013. Back in his rookie year, Randle didn’t really look worthy of even being on an NFL roster. He looked like a pretty ordinary dude, averaging 3.0 yards on his 54 carries. But he’s been training and working on his game, and Randle did plenty with his limited reps last year, consistently busting loose for big gainers last year when they put him into games late. Now he’s bulked up to 210 pounds and is champing at the bit to show he’s a worthy replacement for DeMarco Murray. I’m not saying Randle will put up those kind of numbers or even be used in that kind of way. It will be more of a committee deal this year, with Lance Dunbar and Darren McFadden also getting touches. But Randle looks like their main guy, and if he runs pretty well in the preseason games, I think we’ll all start considering him as a possible top-15 back.

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Question 2

A break from the typical keeper questions. Does Jimmy Graham's arrival actually hurt Russell Wilson’s value? Stay with me here. I'm in a league where 10 yards rushing by a QB is equal to 50 yards passing. Given that Graham might be Wilson’s target on broken plays instead of running for first down, I'm worried that Wilson’s rushing totals will drop dramatically. Also given that Wilson will be playing for a new contract I think he will want to play it a little safer on the scrambles. Thoughts?

tavis medrano (San Gabriel, CA)

Russell Wilson was remarkably bad inside the 10 last year. In that part of the field, he completed only 13 of 26 passes with 7 TDs and 3 sacks. So just 7 scores in 29 plays overall. Among the 23 quarterbacks with at least 20 plays, only two others produced touchdowns on a lower percentage of plays, and both are guys you would never draft – Mark Sanchez and Alex Smith. Graham should help in this area. He’s a big, talented guy who creates matchup problems. He’s been an effective pass catcher in that area before, while Wilson has been better down there before (so we know he can do it). Seattle was practicing about a month ago, and in those workouts, Wilson supposedly was passing to Graham constantly in that area, and they were connecting consistently. But the other issue you raise is more important (especially in your league). I don’t think it’s realistic to expect Wilson to run for anything close to 849 yards and 6 TDs again. I don’t think the team wants a 206-pound franchise quarterback taking those kind of chances, and I think he’ll want to dial it back himself as well (as you point out, his contract situation could affect his mentality some). For planning purposes, I think it’s more realistic to look for him to run for 400-500 yards. In your scoring format, a decrease of 400 rushing yards is equivalent to a decline of 2,000 yards passing (which is why I don’t think there’s much chance of Wilson being a top-5 quarterback).

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Question 3

I have the 2nd and 5th picks in our Keeper League Draft. Available veterans include C.J. Anderson, Charles, Foster, and Lynch to mix in with the rookies. We are allowed to "keep" players for 3 seasons and you can "Franchise" one 3-year guy for 2 additional years. So, how do you rank the top 5?

Dennis Thomas (Royal Oaks, CA)

I don’t think Arian Foster is a candidate. Too old, and too much of an injury risk. Otherwise, I think it’s the three guys you mention and the two rookie runners – Melvin Gordon and Todd Gurley. Right now I will rank them Charles, Gordon, Anderson, Gurley and Lynch (in that order), but not much difference there. That order could change weekly, depending on how things play out in training camps and the preseason.

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Question 4

This is the first year our league will have keepers. I can keep Gronk for a 2nd round pick, Russell Wilson for an 8th, Hyde for a 12th, or Benjamin for a 13th. Benjamin seems to make the most sense, but I've heard he didn't look in shape during OTAs. I can only keep one; which player is the best value right now?

Jason Pilon (Columbia Heights, MN)

I heard the reports about Benjamin weighing 250 at the offseason workouts. At that weight, you have to wonder if he can get open (he’s not a fast guy anyway) and injuries become more likely. But the season is still two months away. For now, Benjamin would be my keeper. If, come the first preseason game, he trots out on the field and looks like Michael Turner or Alge Crumpler below the waist, then I will downgrade him at that time. Gronkowski and Wilson are nice players, but in the second and eighth rounds, that’s not far behind where they’ll be picked anyway. Carlos Hyde is a risky hit-or-miss prospect.

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Question 5

Sunday, June 28, the FSTA conducted their 14-team NFL draft. I was listening in my car (Sirius radio) and almost drove off the road when Darren McFadden was drafted in Round 2. I agree that Dallas' offensive line is amazing, but Darren Freakin’ McFadden? Should I find out what that owner was smoking, or am I missing something?

Dave (MOJO) Smith (Avon Park, FL)

Agreed. That’s crazy. I don’t think he’ll even be the best back on his own team. To select him 23rd overall is insane. If those owners have some kind of feeling that he’s some kind of Sleeper of the Year guy, the correct move would have been to select him in maybe the seventh round. In the Fanex Analysis Draft, McFadden wasn’t picked until the 11th round – player No. 129 overall.

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Question 6

I need advice on selecting my keepers in a 12-team league. The max retention period of a keeper is five years. I am planning on keeping Andrew Luck (2 years left), Eddie Lacy (3) and Alshon Jeffrey (3) for three of the four. My options for the fourth keeper are Keenan Allen (3), Mark Ingram (4) or Davante Adams (4). It is a standard league, non-PPR, with 1 point for 15 yards rushing/receiving (6 pts per TD).

Tim Schadelbauer (Farmingville, NY)

Davante Adams is an intriguing guy. It might not be long before he develops into a Nelson-Cobb kind of weapon in that offense. Maybe in 2016 or 2017, he becomes Green Bay’s top option. But I think you’re in a win-now mode; you’ve got the best quarterback-runner combo in the league, with Luck and Lacy. So I would go with Allen or Ingram. Ingram has a decent chance of being a top-15 running back. Allen looks like a top-30 receiver.

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Question 7

I am in a 16 team non-PPR league. We can keep up to two players, but lose 1st and 2nd round picks respectively. Not sure if there is a best preseason rankings website to go by, but having checked CBS' current rankings. Two of my players appear in the top 32: Antonio Brown and Mark Ingram at #10 and #27 respectively. If I keep none, I currently have the 7th pick in the 1st round and the 10th pick in the 2nd round in a traditional snake draft. In recent past years, good RBs are hard to come by and I'm wondering if I should keep Ingram, but then I think he's not worth the 1st round pick. Any thoughts? BTW, we start QB, RB, RB, WR, WR, Flex, PK, and DEF (TE is included as part of WR position)

KEVIN DALLAS (Covington, KY)

If you like Brown as much as I do, you should probably keep him. He’s the No. 4 player on my board, so if you cut him loose, you’ll likely just re-draft him with the 7th choice. Unlikely that any of the guys I have in my top 3 will still be available in your draft, and there’s maybe a 10 percent chance somebody else in your league really likes Brown and you lose him. As for Ingram, I would cut bait. He’s only the 30th-best player on my board. You’ve got the 10th pick of the second round, which is 24th overall, so there’s sure to be at least a half dozen players who are better than Ingram when it’s your turn to pick.

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Question 8

I would like to see you add a section to your magazine that critiques the selections that were made the previous year ... both good and bad. You could expound on the reasons for the variations against their actual performance year end. Two years ago I drafted Ray Rice RB, David Johnson RB, Danny Amendola WR and Tom Brady QB and finished last in my league. I was not happy with your recommendations at the time. But, I would like to see the critiques anyway.

Bob King ()

I don’t think there’s much interest in listening to a guy drone on about how good his picks were. I roll my eyes when I see this expert or that claiming to have the secret elixir. “We said so-and-so was a sleeper – and he had a big year!”. To accurately measure my picks against others, I would have to spend quality time trying to collect and organize all the picks of all the other guys, standardized across scoring systems, all while ensuring they were all made at the same time (picks in late August will be better than picks in late July). Some guys would make poor picks that turned out to be officially “good” because of luck. Guys who were high on Dennis Pitta last year, for example, made the logically correct forecast, but he ended up getting hurt so they would grade out poorly. And whatever l cooked up, you probably wouldn’t believe it or have much interest in it anyway. It’s better, I think, for me to spend my time analyzing and breaking down NFL teams and players, trying to find something I can share that has some actual value for you. As for the four guys you mention, you’re talking about two years ago. Ray Rice, I recall, entered that season as one of the franchise running backs – a run-catch guy who was putting up big numbers every year. He was 26 years old. I was of the school of thought he would have another productive year. But he struggled. The offensive line was really bad, and he also bulked up way too much – I recall he added 15-25 pounds of muscle, trying to get bigger and stronger, and it just made him slower. Rice was my No. 7 running back that year, but everyone was high on him. In our experts poll that year, only 5 of the 20 other analysts ranked him lower than 7th. As for Amendola, the Patriots signed him to a big contract that year to be the replacement for Wes Welker. I bought into that. Amendola had had 80-plus catches for the Rams, and I thought he’d be a Welker-type guy. I was a lot higher than most analysts on Amendola. I thought he’d catch 100-plus passes. It didn’t play out that way. Amendola struggled some, got hurt, and in the second half of the year, they plugged Julian Edelman into that role (and he became a Welker-type guy). So there’s that. I was wrong. But I think the logic was correct, and if I could back up the clock and rank him again, I’d probably rank him the exact same way and be wrong again. That’s the nature of the beast. As for Brady, if memory serves correct, he was lackluster in the first half of 2013 and then came on in the second half of the year. So a down year for him. You also mention David Johnson. I think that’s a typo. I don’t recall a back named David Johnson that year, and I’m not sure if you’re looking for a David something, a something Johnson, or maybe an Arizona running back (since they now have a David Johnson on their roster).

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